The close-up of close-ups...aquariums under the microscope!

[Amphiprionocellaris]

Hey everyone!

I've recently taken a job in a lab which is equipped with a number of imaging scopes, and it was only a matter of time before I decided to have some fun with my tanks:D. I still need some practice taking pictures of the more mobile animals, but here is the first batch.

Enjoy!

A copepod at 100x
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b199/amphiprionocellaris/Copepod-10x.jpg

A spicule at 400x
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b199/amphiprionocellaris/Spicule-40x.jpg

Hair algae at 100x
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b199/amphiprionocellaris/HairAlgae-10x.jpg

Some diatoms at 200x
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b199/amphiprionocellaris/Diatoms-20x.jpg

A lone diatom at 400x
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b199/amphiprionocellaris/Diatom-40x.jpg

Another diatom at 200x
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b199/amphiprionocellaris/Diatom-20x.jpg

Finally, a mat of cyanobacteria at 400x...you can see that's it not as solid as it looks!
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b199/amphiprionocellaris/Cyanobacteria-40x.jpg

There's plenty of down time in the lab, so look for more super-close-ups in the future;).

P.S. For the curious, I just used an eyedropper to grab samples from my 10 gallon tank and place them on slides.

[kar93]

Interesting pics, Thanks for sharing.

[TitusvileSurfer]

Great Job! I can only imagine what these things must look like alive and swimming around.

[Amphiprionocellaris]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12859992#post12859992 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by TitusvileSurfer
Great Job! I can only imagine what these things must look like alive and swimming around.

Thanks! It's actually pretty amazing to see...and the pictures only represent the slower animals. There's so much stuff zooming around that it was a little overwhelming at first. Hopefully I'll be able to refine my technique enough to get shots of those, too.

[Letmegrow]

If you can get some of the medusa sage of Hydroids they are amazing to look at and easy to catch when they settle on the glass.

[kactusficus]

Very interesting!

The cyano looks very delicate and beautiful, lol, not the pest I thought it was! :)

[Amphiprionocellaris]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12862788#post12862788 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Letmegrow
If you can get some of the medusa sage of Hydroids they are amazing to look at and easy to catch when they settle on the glass.

We actually get live hydra as part of our zoology course, and they're definitely on the list of things to get images of:)!

[fatrip]

very cool. thanks for sharing....looking foward to seeing more. :)

[Amphiprionocellaris]

I took some new samples today, this time from one of my 140 gallon reefs. It's a more mature tank than the nano, and the microscopic community is very different! Tomorrow I'm going to try getting samples from my predator tank and my ten year old reef.

To start things off, some bubble algae [not so delicately smashed] at 100x
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b199/amphiprionocellaris/BubbleAlgae-10x.jpg

A top-down view of a copepod at 100x...and you can see how they got the common name "cyclops".
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b199/amphiprionocellaris/Cyclops-10x.jpg

And I thought my water was clean...this 100x view of a drop collected from my refugium begs to differ...
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b199/amphiprionocellaris/Diatomswarm-10x.jpg

Some more diatoms at 200x
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b199/amphiprionocellaris/Diatoms-2-20x.jpg

A red flatworm at 40x...the green dots are chloroplasts and a clue to why the population exploded under metal halides.
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b199/amphiprionocellaris/Flatworm-4x.jpg

I'm not entirely sure what's going on here...those projections are either part of the hair algae or diatoms living on its surface...100x.
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b199/amphiprionocellaris/Hairalgaediatoms-10x.jpg

A very wild-looking segmented worm, or possibly an arthropod:)...40x.
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b199/amphiprionocellaris/Worm2-4x.jpg

Some beautiful red algae at 200x.
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b199/amphiprionocellaris/redalgae-20x.jpg

[red13miller]

very cool

[sassafrass]

Love those pics more! more!
Lee

[ClarionAngel]

Very nice and interesting pictures.

[brad2048]

very cool!

[Jeff cousteau]

wicked job man :) kinda scares me a bit tho.... really gonna start washing my hands a ltille better after I'm done working on/in my tank

[footbagger311]

That is pretty tight. I wonder what some coralline would look like.

[stdreb27]

That is awesome, keep em coming!

[crvz]

great pictures, thanks for sharing!

[spline9]

Kinda makes you think twice about starting a siphon with your mouth again, huh? :)

[melev]

Cool beans! PM sent. :D

[kactusficus]

Wow, that's definitely makes me want to get a microscope for next christmas!! Beautiful images, and it must be very thrilling to see all this life moving under your eye!!
thanks a lot for sharing!

[this is me]

These are pretty neat. Thanks for sharing.

[nrike]

great pictures, lets see more.

[hatfielj]

Great thread! This is exactly why I've always wanted to buy a nice microscope. There's so much more life in our tanks that we don't even see on a day to day basis. Thanks for sharing!

[Nick Fr.]

wow great pics

[Nick Fr.]

wow great pics

[Kevin34]

Sweet pics. Does anyone else think that flatworm pic looks like a dog?:lol:

[kfisc]

Definitely a cool thread! Can't wait to see more.

[SALT WATER CRAZ]

intresting pic. I will be watching for round 3 :p

[mkbtank]

Yes! Please keep them coming. Very cool indeed!

[Amphiprionocellaris]

Hey everyone...thanks for all the kind words! I didn't expect this thread to be as popular as it is...I guess I'm not the only one who finds everything about our tanks beautiful:)

Of course, here are some more pics...some of my personal favorites.

I like taking pictures of copepods...because they take good pictures:) 400x
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b199/amphiprionocellaris/Copepod-40x.jpg

There's no denying the beauty of a coral colony, but what about this "diatom colony"?(200x)
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b199/amphiprionocellaris/Diatoms-20x-1.jpg

I love this, mainly because I have no idea what it is...a tiny snail perhaps?(200x)
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b199/amphiprionocellaris/Tinysnail-10x.jpg

A wonderful diatom...such precision on such a small scale...it's astounding really.(200x)
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b199/amphiprionocellaris/Diatom-20x-1.jpg

I'm no fan of hair algae, but my heart softens a little when I see it at 100x.
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b199/amphiprionocellaris/Algae-10x.jpg

Hello! A nematode peeks out from his algae forest at 100x.
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b199/amphiprionocellaris/Nematode-10x.jpg

Ok everyone enjoy the latest pics, and look out for even more fun stuff in the future...we just got a fluorescent lens on one of the scopes and algae just light up:D.

[stdreb27]

Can I make a request, will you take a picture of skimmate?

[stdreb27]

Can I make a request, will you take a picture of the skimmate?

[stdreb27]

Can I make a request, will you take a picture of the skimmate?

[salinna]

awesome pics:cool:

[dteske]

Truly incredible pics, thanks this is great stuff.

[lowincwrx]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12913702#post12913702 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by spline9
Kinda makes you think twice about starting a siphon with your mouth again, huh? :)

I hadn't thought about that. :eek:

[ucflumberjack]

That was an awesome post. Thanks for sharing.

[Slakker]

Awesome images! My favorite day of Freshman biology was sedating a goldfish and looking at it under a microscope. It's definitely something else to watch the blood flow through the veins of a living creature.

[DiazE]

GREAT THREAD! keep it coming!
What's the equipment your using? I have been thinking about seeing a thread like this; I like trying to see the small stuff down in the sump.

Would also like to see a microscopic picture of what skimmate looks like magnified, to see what life is exported.

Thanks, good sharing.
:thumbsup:

[DiazE]

:D

[Amphiprionocellaris]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13907862#post13907862 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by DiazE
GREAT THREAD! keep it coming!
What's the equipment your using? I have been thinking about seeing a thread like this; I like trying to see the small stuff down in the sump.

Would also like to see a microscopic picture of what skimmate looks like magnified, to see what life is exported.


First off, thanks for the kind words...it's nice to see everyone having as much fun with this as I do :D.

As far as the equipment, it's a Zeiss Axiocam, which mounts directly on a microscope. We have a fairly advanced setup in our lab which we use for muscle analysis, and I co-opted it for my tanks. I do know that my dad has modified a digital camera to couple with a microscope, though I can't remember off the top of my head how he did it.

I don't have pictures on file of it, but I've looked at skimmate a bunch for the same reasons, and it was teeming with life (mainly microscopic stuff). The question becomes "is it exporting that, or did that stuff just grow off the nutrients," but there's definitely lots there.

I'll probably be working on the next batch of images once post-semester boredom sets in;).

[xtm]

Amazing pics! I've always wondered what I would see in a tank water when viewed under a microscope. Thanks for sharing!

Now if you can only capture a video of them moving.. :D

[Timanator]

This thread is way better than the Discovery channel!

[wishntoboutside]

wow great thread you have going on here. those pictures are incredible. any chance you can take a picture of a nudibranches or even monti nudi eggs? they would be very informative to many.
thanks for sharing
Richard

[Rosseau]

Excellent shots here. I'm glad someone has taken a liking to the smallest inhabitants of our tanks. It's not hard to argue their beauty in my mind. In fact, I think that the reef aquariums are only beautiful because of the interactions between all of its parts, big and bright or other.


Perhaps somebody could help me with this one...

I'm not too sure what these are, yet the show up on my glass periodically. Certainly less than a mm across (copepod for scale).

http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r265/rosseau52/a4.jpg

http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r265/rosseau52/a7.jpg


Though not nearly 400x I can get some decent magnification with my camera.

Here's an isopod.

http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r265/rosseau52/a11isopodcrop.jpg
Sump Scene

http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r265/rosseau52/a14.jpg


I wont clutter up this thread any more with photos, however if you want to see more they are in my red house.

[TitusvileSurfer]

Wow nice job.

[tonyespinoza]

wow - this is an awesome thread!

would anyone mind sharing what equipment you're using?

i'd like to get a system up to take similar pics -- i see some pretty crazy stuff running around in my tanks...

what would you recommend as the dream system? say, up to $2000?

[melev]

Tony, did you read the article about this thread in this month's <i>Reefkeeping Magazine</i>?

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-12/feature/index.php

[tonyespinoza]

i'll check it out now! thanks for the pointer marc.

btw - the microscope that's been recommended to me is:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/496606-REG/Swift_M10MA10030_M10_Microscope_with_Plan.html#accessories

or possibly this same model without the "plan" optics.

[tonyespinoza]

correction: yes, i had read that article -- it's how i found this thread! circular reference... :-)